6 defendants held for trial in torture slaying of disabled western Pa. woman

6 defendants held for trial in Pa. torture slaying

GREENSBURG, Pa. — One of six defendants charged in the torture death of a mentally disabled woman recounted in a recorded statement played Thursday at a preliminary hearing how he repeatedly stabbed the woman, and how he and some of the others beat her and fed her urine, feces, and detergent.

After the five-hour hearing, Greensburg District Judge James Albert ordered all defendants to stand trial on charges of homicide, kidnapping, aggravated assault and criminal conspiracy.

Even as he admitted stabbing 30-year-old Jennifer Daugherty in the chest and neck and helping dump her body, Melvin Knight said co-defendant Ricky Smyrnes primarily called the shots.

The recorded statements of both Knight and Smyrnes, both from Greensburg, were played in court and indicated the defendants were angry with Daugherty because she wanted to have sex with Smyrnes while she visited them at an apartment in Greensburg, about 30 miles east of Pittsburgh. She began her visit Feb. 8; her body was found about 7 a.m. Feb. 11.

After being tied up, beaten repeatedly and forced to drink the concoctions over roughly a day and a half, Knight said Smyrnes told him Daugherty had to die.

“Ricky went and got a knife and told me to stab her. I hesitated for a little bit, then I stabbed her,” the 20-year-old Knight said on the recording. He admitted stabbing her “about three” times in the chest sometime in the early hours of Feb. 11.

He said he stabbed her again in the side after Smyrnes said she was still alive.

Knight recounted how he and Smyrnes then stuffed Daugherty’s body in a trash can and carried it to a nearby school parking lot, where they shoved it under a truck. Knight told detectives that he then feared the 23-year-old Smyrnes.

“It was either me or Jennifer, or my fiance” — Amber Meidinger, 20, another defendant, Knight said. Meidinger was pregnant with his child, he said.

As Daugherty’s final hours were recounted, some of her family members wept and, at times, stared at the handcuffed and shackled defendants seated about 10 feet away.

Daugherty’s family declined comment after the hearing.

Her stepfather, Bobby Murphy, 62, of Mount Pleasant, previously said she had the mental abilities of a 12- to 14-year-old.

Knight, Smyrnes and Meidinger occasionally smirked and smiled during the hearing. Knight mouthed “Yes” in sync with his taped voice as a detective asked him if he understood his rights.

In his recorded statement, Smyrnes admitted having sex with Daugherty. He acknowledged that angered his girlfriend, Angela Marinucci, 17, another defendant.

He said he, Knight, Meidinger and Marinucci began beating Daugherty and tied her up on Feb. 9. In the early morning of Feb. 11, he said, Knight stabbed her.

Smyrnes said he sliced Daugherty once on the arm, but only because Knight forced him to. He said Knight also forced him at knifepoint to take sleeping pills.

Attorneys for five defendants declined comment the hearing.

The chief public defender in Westmoreland County, Dante Bertani is representing Peggy Miller. He said she was “a little slow,” and at least several defendants had “mental health backgrounds.” The defense was trying to document them, he said.

In his recorded statement, Smyrnes mentioned he hadn’t taken his bipolar medication.

“I’m not excusing what they did. But you also have to take into consideration that if you have people who are not able to make the same kind of judgments that you or I might make, that’s some mitigation of what happened,” he said.

He said Miller and sixth defendant, Robert Loren Masters Jr., 36, were specifically cleared of wrongdoing by the statements of Knight and Smyrnes. Though they may have been there, he said, they had no obligation to intervene.

Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck said other evidence would come out showing others’ involvement.

The defendants declined comment outside the courtroom. But, as he was being put into a sheriff’s van to be transported to jail, Miller said, “We’re sorry what we did and we didn’t mean it.”

A formal arraignment is set for April 23, but a trial date has not been set.

Peck said he hasn’t decided whether to seek the death penalty.